If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Primal Journal (LisaM)

03-30-2013, 08:59 PM

I'm starting this journal so I have a record of my journey and so I can share what I learn along the way with others. I found MDA on 18th February 2013 and started moving towards eating primal that very day! I was a bit unsure about the whole eat fat thing, and wasn't convinced I'd be able to give up my daily porridge/oatmeal breakfast. But I thought I'd give it a go.

My problems
I've known for a long long time that dairy and I don't mix. As a kid I could only drink a glass of milk if it was watered down, cheesy dishes gave me headaches and ice cream made me feel very sick. At my parents wedding when I was seven I vomited down my Aunty's back - probably from eating too much pavlova with cream!! The last 12 months or so I've been feeling almost constantly nauseous, so I'd recently stopped eating all dairy (previously I could get away with non-fat dairy without too much trouble).

I am also sensitive to sulfites - after a bout of pneumonia about 10 years ago, I started getting extremely hot and itchy rashes. Anti-histamines helped, but eventually I worked out the likely culprit was sulfites (I could drink most red wines without trouble, but most white wines would cause a rash). I can get away with having some, but too much and the hot itchy rash comes back. I often have a stuffy nose and itchy eyes, sometimes the end of my nose gets insanely itchy - I'm thinking maybe it's sulfites.

I've had trouble with what I call 'low blood sugar', though it's never been diagnosed by a doctor or anything. I just sometimes feel really faint, have a cold sweat, ringing in my ears and am extremely anxious. It's a feeling that if I don't get some sugar now I'm going to pass out. Only usually happens when I'm trying to eat 'healthy' following CW. A dose of something sweet fixes the problem pronto. It means I usually make sure I have food handy, especially when I'm out and about, just in case.

Lastly, I'm overweight - ok so technically I'm morbidly obese (I object to the morbidly bit as I'm not sick - yet). I'm 160.5cm (5ft 3in) tall and weighed 120.2kg (265lb) before I found MDA. Blood tests 12 months ago showed I was insulin resistant, my cholesterol and blood pressure were a little on the high side. Liver tests (including ultra sound) showed I had fatty liver. My mum has heart disease and type II diabetes - I know that I was on the road that ended where she is now.

My Goals
My primary reason for going primal is to not end up sick like my mum is now.

I'd like to fix the problems above, particularly have a diet that is devoid of dairy and has minimal sulfites, but is healthy, satisfying and prevents those 'lows'.

I'd like to be a healthy weight (for my height that would be 55-64 kg or 121-141lbs)

I'd like to be strong and fit so I can enjoy scuba diving again (more about that another time).

My Plan
I've been playing with primal for the last 6 weeks or so and have learnt alot, had some success and pretty much convinced myself it is doable. Now it's time to be serious about creating the lifestyle I want - permanently.

This month I will:
1. Weigh and measure myself once, on the 1st and not again until next month
2. Eat three primal meals a day
3. Get at least 2 hours walking per week
4. Get some 'lift heavy things' exercise once a week or so
5. Try a sprint session at least once this month
6. Source more organic vegetables

Weigh in
Weighed in today at 114.8kg (253lb), so I've lost 5.4kg (12lb) in the last 6 weeks or so. I'm pretty happy with that. I don't want to weigh in again for another month as I want this journey to be more about feeling better than losing weight. In the past I've tended to focus too much on the weight loss and not so much about making changes that will stick once I've lost the weight. Knowing how what I eat influences how I feel will be important once I've lost the excess weight and am just maintaining.

Food
Today breakfast was bacon and egg, with spinach
Lunch was left over slow-cooked chicken with cabbage, broccoli and carrot
Dinner is roast veal with roast sweet potato, pumpkin and carrot, steamed peas and a lime, anchovy and parsley sauce.

Activity
Not much today, a little housework, but mostly spent the day in front of the computer catching up with some work.

How I feel
Overall, I've been pretty tired today - didn't get much sleep last night as I kept waking up then couldn't get back to sleep again. This is a reoccurring issue for me, it is rare that I wake up refreshed and feeling like I've had a good sleep.

Comment

It's been a tough couple of days. Haven't been sleeping well and have been so hungry. When I'm tired I get a bit lazy, so didn't take lunch with me to uni yesterday. Instead I bought a "create your own" salad with chicken, egg, lettuce, carrot, capsicum and cucumber. I asked to look at the ingredients for their mayo as my previous favorite dressing (balsamic) has sulfites. Their mayo had no dairy and no sulfites, but did have canola oil and vinegar (could contain sulfites). I decided to give it a try rather than opting for a bland salad. No itchiness so was probably ok and tasted fine. In the past lunch would probably have been a ham and cheese croissant and either a chocolate bar, donut or muffin. I think I'm doing well I definitely look better and my clothes are getting loose. Luckily I've saved lots of my smaller clothes so I won't have to shop for a while.

I wake up frequently during the night (about four times last night I think) and it takes a long time to get back to sleep. I usually at most get 4 hours continuous sleep, then a couple of hours broken sleep. I don't think it's enough. I wondered yesterday if I couldn't sleep because I was hungry or was hungry because I didn't get enough sleep! I try to go to bed early and I don't have an alarm to wake up to. Unfortunately hours in bed don't equal hours of quality sleep As long as I can remember I've had trouble sleeping. I'm hoping things will improve. I really notice when I do get a full nights sleep, I have so much more energy.

Comment

It seems like I've been overweight my entire life, though I'm sure that's not true. When I look at photos of myself as a child, I didn't look that much bigger than other kids my age, at least not until puberty! I gradually put on weight, increasing in dress size every two years or so. At age 12 I was a size 12, at age 16 I was size 16, at age 20 I was size 20, at age 24 I was size 24 and weighed about 120kg (240lbs). As most of the larger size clothing stores I shopped at only went to a size 24, I knew if I didn't sort out this steady weight gain I would have to resort to making all my own clothes (ok, not such a bad thing but who has the time these days)!

Around the time I realized this, I learnt to scuba dive. I was immediately hooked, and wanted to become a dive instructor. Scuba gear is heavy, and having so much excess body fat meant I needed to carry lots of lead weight to help me sink - when I started my weight belt had 20kg of lead, a full scuba cylinder weighs about 15-20kg, plus the rather thick wetsuit (water temperature in winter 8-10ºC, 46-50ºF) and other gear - it meant walking up and down sandy beaches or climbing stairs carrying alot of extra weight (lifting heavy things - check)!! During the actual dive, things are a bit easier as you are virtually weightless underwater. Slow movement wins the day - otherwise you don't get to enjoy the wildlife . Through diving every weekend and starting to swim before work most days (the instructor exam included a swim test - so I was in training!) I lost about 10kg/20lbs. After a blessing in the disguise of a car accident that meant my car was written off and I was too scared to drive again (I was unharmed in the accident), I used the insurance money to pay off some debt and purchase my very first brand new bicycle. I started cycling to the train station each day and back again and started walking lots more (including carrying a weeks worth of groceries 1.5km home). With all this exercise I figured if I just sorted out my eating I'd lose weight pretty quickly. So off I went and joined Weight Watchers. Over the next 12 months or so, I lost about 35kg/70lbs and was wearing a size 12 again. I was fitter than I'd ever been and enjoyed physical activity like never before. I completed a 1/2 marathon, jogging about 3/4 of the way and walking the rest (time was about 3hrs 20mins). I completed (and enjoyed) a few mini triathlons.

But things changed, slowly so I barely noticed. I moved house a couple of times, meaning I was getting less exercise on my way to work each day. I started diving less frequently as I began studying for a Masters degree part-time. I took a relationship breakup pretty hard and started eating more junky comfort food. I moved overseas away from my diving buddies, friends and family and became more lonely and exercised even less, ate worse and worse. Public transport was not great in my new city so I bought a car and over time, drove more, walked less, until I wasn't doing any physical activity (my job involves sitting at a computer all day). Through this time, I watched myself get bigger and bigger, continued to try to lose weight in fits and starts and generally became more and more depressed, ate more comfort food, felt worse about myself, ate more, felt worse.....rinse and repeat endlessly....

Over the next five years I put on all the weight I'd lost. I lost all my fitness. I was too ashamed of myself to go diving, work out in a gym or do anything really except sit on the couch and eat. I knew I needed help. I tried going to a counselor, joined weight watchers about three more times, tried body trim (low carb diet) and Michelle Bridges 12 week body transformation (Michelle is one of the biggest loser Australia trainers), and tried counting calories. I even went to my GP for advice and joined the medical clinics weight loss programs. The thing is, I knew I could lose weight - I had some success on these programs, usually for 2-6 weeks, losing 2-7kgs. But, eventually, I would get stressed, tired, hungry and give in to all the easy access fast food and other junk. I'd give up on myself, berating myself the whole time for being such a failure.

In September 2011 (age 32) I had some blood tests as I'd been feeling particularly lethargic and had high insulin but normal fasting blood sugar. My cholesterol was high, liver functions tests and ultrasound showed I had fatty liver. My mum had had a small heart attack and had recently been diagnosed with type II diabetes. I knew that I was well and truly on the path that led to heart disease and diabetes too.

I was getting more and more anxious about losing weight, but needed to find something that would last long term. I didn't want to count calories or points or carbs or anything for the rest of my life. I remember my weight loss journey being easy. I didn't have to really try hard to curb my eating. I counted my points and got plenty of exercise. I felt I needed to fix the reason I gained the weight back before I could be confident in losing weight again. I'm an epidemiologist, had done some undergraduate biochemistry and am quite used to reading medical journals. I started reading the literature on fatty liver, heart disease, type II diabetes, low carb diets, long term weight loss, maintaining large weight loss etc etc etc. Pretty much anything I could find to help me understand my situation. Somehow, I came across paleo diets, then found MDA and the primal blueprint. And here I am.

It remains to be seen if this is just another of the doomed to fail weight loss attempts or if this really is a lifestyle change I can make permanent. So far,I'm feeling better than I have in a long time, more positive and I have more energy. I got through the last few days of feeling really tired and hungry (I'll leave my strategy for another post) and have made it through almost 7 weeks and have lost 7kgs so far (I know I said I wasn't going to weigh myself for a month, but I couldn't wait ). Things are looking up!

I've written this post as a reminder for myself about where I have come from, how I got here. Telling my story helps me to understand myself. I share it in the hope it might help someone else understand themselves too.